


love springs (from dirt like carrots)

by ElasticElla



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e10 The Art of the Deal, F/F, Femslash February
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 00:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17632775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: “If more were like you, we might have been able to coexist. But there is no weight to our promises now, we are weak and our home cannot sustain us.”Julia tilts her head, thinks this may be the next step. “Show me.”





	love springs (from dirt like carrots)

**Author's Note:**

> title and prompt was from Tishani Doshi's 'From When I Was Still a Poet'
> 
> …naturally I had to kick femfeb off with some fairy femslash X)

“If more were like you, we might have been able to coexist. But there is no weight to our promises now, we are weak and our home cannot sustain us.” 

Julia tilts her head, thinks this may be the next step. “Show me.” 

The Queen places her fingertips together. “There is a price for traveling between realms, I could not ask it of you.” 

She nods, the power roaring inside of her, decisive. “Only to return though, right?” 

“Yes.” 

Julia smiles, “Then you won’t need to ask. I can find my own way.” 

She hesitates, but she is a true queen- her first duty will always be to her people- and she takes Julia’s hands. With a blink, they leave this land. As does every other fairy, making it the first true escape from the place that would have them dead. 

.

They arrive in a crystal dome, the Queen dropping her hands and turning to a fairy that was already here. “I need a count, we will be returning to our true home soon.” 

The fairy looks startled, her hands moving through the air fast with gray sparks of magic. “Three hundred and four fairies- that can’t be right- one egg and one human?” 

“Thank you Dusk.” The Queen reaches into the air, and Julia feels the key’s magic before she sees it, reality blurring and blending for a split-second. 

“We are safe,” The Queen declares, snapping her fingers. 

The dome is gone, a world of flat white and black marble as far as the eye can see. It’s so very empty, chills dancing down her spine. 

All of the fairies are here, murmuring to each other. The Queen jumps up into the air, hovering before them. 

“My brethren, today we have come home. We are reunited with those that suffered on Earth for our ancestors to escape to Fillory. We are no longer parallel to those worlds, no longer known to those that would rule and hunt us. We are free!” The Queen exclaims, curling her fingers through the air to create a statue of a marble pegasus about to take flight. “Turn this world into our home, create whatever you desire.” 

Excited whispers circle the crowd, marble creations coming into existence. Houses and animals first, the latter with an extra push of magic to not betray their marble roots. A large hall is created, open to the air and lined with large columns of marble shaped as trees. Some of the fairies begin to dance inside, singing of a new beginning. 

The Queen comes over to Julia, holding the egg. “Your magic is different. You can create instead of transform. That is what life needs.” 

Julia swallows as she remembers magic saying this is the only one left. There’s a sinking feeling in her gut that knows exactly what happened to the other eggs. She walks to the edge of the group, sitting down and closing her eyes. 

A river first, plants will need water. Perhaps salt water later, a few vast oceans, if there’s a need for it. There is light that bounces off of the marble, no source to be seen. That’s fine, the plants can live off of magic; she’ll find a way to make it work. She needs marshes and grasslands, hills and valleys, forests and fields. Then creatures, real ones, not mere automation of stone. An entire world-- she’s letting her vision get bigger than her magic again. 

Freshwater first, she thinks, nice and simple. A river to circle the realm, none will be lost. Image firm in her mind, Julia draws the magic out, stretches it as far as it will go. Fatigue hits before she’s halfway done, and she pushes it down, will not fail this. She reaches for the two ends of the river, tugging them together. Exhausted, she pulls too hard, creating a lake on the other side of the world. 

She lets go of the magic and smiles, falling back on the marble floor. Another broken law of magic, but perhaps those aren’t the laws here anyways, she muses, passing out. 

.

When Julia comes back to comes back to consciousness, she isn’t sure it isn’t a dream. 

She lays on a bed of flowers, soft dirt beneath, a butterfly landing upon her nose. It has wings of glass, and Julia dares not disturb it, wondering how it can even fly. (Magic, her brain kicks in a moment later- and it still feels incredible, no matter all the horrors that came along with it, that _magic_ is real.) 

Julia stares, cross-eyed at the delicate wings until it flies away. She sits up, and she’s in a field of flowers, all purples and yellows. There’s a familiar figure nearby, and she walks over, a large circle of dirt in the field’s center. The ring is lined with ordinary mushrooms, a very special one in the middle. 

“Is the baby going to be okay? Sorry about passing out-” 

The Queen’s fingers press against her mouth, and Julia falls silent, blood rushing to her cheeks. “Yes, they will be born in a season. You used nearly all of your magic to give us water, once again you have done a great boon for my people.” 

Julia turns her hand, a frog leaping into existence. “Huh, it came back. Stronger.” 

The Queen doesn’t look surprised like she should, “I have shared a realm with gods before, I know how their magic works.” 

A startled laugh passes her lips, quickly edging on hysterical. “I’m not- that’s- I have a little spark, that’s all.” 

She blinks slowly, “That spark made this world habitable, lasting. My transformations would have faded, centuries from now perhaps, but it wouldn’t have been a permanent solution. It wouldn’t have been safe for a child.” 

Julia looks at the central mushroom, can’t argue with that. 

“What’s your name?” She asks suddenly, can’t believe it hadn’t come up yet- then again, the last few days have been unbelievable, even accounting for magic’s existence. 

The Queen tilts her head, “All fairies have at least two names, some many more. A public name, one with no weight or real identity beyond a mask. Skye, Glimmer, Dusk. Then there is a fairy’s true name. A name that can be used to invoke us, for to know a fairy’s name is to be theirs.”

“Oh.”

And for once Julia hates her curiosity, mind whirling as to what being hers may mean.

.

There is no way of measuring time in the fairy realm. It is always bright outside, and dark inside. At any point fairies can be found eating or drinking or dancing or telling stories. Julia likes joining the last group most, has never heard fairy tales quite like this. 

It takes an embarrassingly long time for Julia to realize that none of them need to eat. Meals are a social game more than anything else. Fairies live, are made out of, magic and Julia is no longer human. (A lucky thing, because she isn’t that confident in if their vegetable garden could sustain someone, much less a small population.) 

Over watermelon slices she hears the story of Illith, the first changeling. With the fairies from earth, the adolescents teach them how to dance. It’s mostly patterns of rhythmic movements that form a never-ending loop, and sometimes they dance so long that it’s a good thing there is no measure of time here. In quiet whispers she learns what happened to the other ninety-nine eggs, shedding useless tears. 

That night she thinks of those she left behind, of her friends and once questmates. She can’t go back, a certainty that’s pushed down any guilt over her abandonment. Tonight it won’t stay down though, her imagination putting them in trouble, somewhere they would need a god- and hasn’t she gotten self-centered? They did fine without her, she isn’t even one of them. 

She sleeps poorly, decides not to sleep again for a long time. Surely, the gods don’t need to sleep. (Indeed, she finds, they don’t.)

.

The fairy realm becomes more and more true to itself as time passes. As the magic builds ever higher, every one contributing in their own way. The world is full, abundant with life and joy. There are still places where the original black and white marble floor can be seen- at the edges of civilization, and within some of the older fairies’ homes. 

When Julia used to sleep it was in the common house, open to all, especially those that sleep poorly. The Queen herself stays there, to make sure none are ever alone when they seek companionship. Admittedly, Julia stayed there more to avoid creating a home, but she is a lady of many problems- can’t possibly sleep well. (It is a hollow victory that Penny hasn’t- hasn’t been able to or doesn’t want to- visit her dreams. That her mind is safe. From temptation or inadvertently giving away where they are.)

It is a warm day like all others when the first birth happens. Every fairy, and Julia, attends, standing in silent circles around the dirt plot. The ground shifts and stills, the central mushroom pulled sideways. If she hadn’t already been told to do absolutely nothing, she would be helping, her fingers itch to cast a little levitation magic. 

The mushroom suddenly disappears, and she can feel the child’s magic wash over the crowd, little hands just visible. The Queen walks forwards, plucks the babe up. 

“Who will be the first to teach this child? To teach them all of our history and language, of our culture and magic?” 

An elderly fairy steps forward, and she thinks his name starts with a T, can’t quite recall. The two speak too quietly to hear, two small waves of magic rippling through the crowd. The Queen hands the babe to the older fairy, and he smiles at them, offering a finger for the child to grip.

“After my eldest child, you shall be known as Dex. May your life be easier and longer,” he says, a small spark for the blessing. 

The other fairies approach, one by one. Small blessings and well wishes are most common, some offering teaching or open doors. The Queen told her about this part earlier, and she still hasn’t thought of a blessing that will work. She wants to give the child safety, but a shield would drain the babe’s magic. Another well wisher, and it is her turn. It comes to her then, standing in front of the babe with big dark eyes. 

She reaches for her magic, and it leaps to her fingertips. “I give you the gift of the hunt. May you always find what you are looking for, whether it is a way home or an escape. That every hunt shall be yours, that you cannot be caged.” 

The magic pours out of her, a copper glittering pool that the babe grasps and consumes, giggling. 

Julia smiles, and the world blacks out. 

.

She wakes up in an unfamiliar room, seeped in the Queen’s magic. She lays on a small couch that is far too comfortable to not really be a small bed, getting up slowly. There is no dizziness, no aches- no marks of humanity her mind adds wryly. 

The Queen herself is seated across from her, an expression on her face that she can’t quite place. 

“I’m not so great at being a god, huh?” Julia offers to break the silence. 

She tilts her head, “Do you know what you gave Dex?” 

“A blessing for escape- that they will be safe.” Julia pauses before confessing, “I haven’t done it before, I’m not sure if I gave enough magic for it to stick.” 

The Queen laughs, a terribly beautiful sound like wind chimes smashing. “More than. If they were human, they would be a demi-god. As a fairy, this is…unprecedented.” 

“I can find a way to take it back? I know-” 

“No,” the Queen interrupts firmly. “Dex’s magic is stable, there will be no playing with it.” 

“Oh.”

“Besides, Tanner would not allow it. His child will become stronger than us all. For some, that is all they wish.” 

And while Julia has made peace, of a sort, with the magic she was given- she never thought she’d do the same to another. Unknowingly, but still. 

She thinks back to the ceremony, a question coming back. “Do you know every fairy’s name- true name?” 

The Queen blinks slowly, “Yes.”

“That must be a heavy burden,” Julia says, not quite knowing how to get at what she intends without causing offense. 

“I am a queen. Come, Dex will be taking their first steps soon.”

.

Julia doesn’t know how quickly or slowly fairies age, only that Dex’s existence brings about a more real sense of time. The only one that seems to get older. She learns about fairies in a new way with Dex- simple things they teach their children. Like how Dex isn’t expected to pick a gender until puberty, and some fairies never pick one at all or how they teach magic to the child, with infinite patience and exaggerated hand movements. 

She asks the Queen one day about future children- the circle is ready and there is still space to create more if multiple eggs were to be buried. The Queen says no, that they will be raising the new generation traditionally. Only one fairy child at a time to make sure each gets all they need from the community as they grow. 

Julia doesn’t need to ask what that says about their previous desperation, about the lost generation. 

Skye starts a library project, to record history. She is the first to speak openly of what the McAllisters did. ‘There is no sense in drowning in history, but learning to swim- that is how you get better,’ the Queen tells Julia. And sure enough, the library becomes a place for healing. 

Julia does not go. It’s impossible not to compare scars, and hers are older and smaller. She is still human enough to know not to intrude. (Besides, thinking of what happened to her means thinking of earth and all its people she abandoned. And doesn’t that sound conceited, as if her influence was ever so great.)

She and the Queen create a herd of unicorns for those that wish to ride, with heavily enchanted golden hooves that can traverse the entire world before a new mealtime. Riding becomes a regular group activity, the younger ones especially love galloping alongside the river, racing one another. 

Julia dances with the Queen, has long learned her silences and lip twitches to know she is happy. As she should be- this world is marvelous and safe, full of possibility. She is radiant as always, and Julia feels lighter around her, as if her soul could sing. She’s so full of love and joy, that it is simple to take the Queen’s hands. 

She cocks an eyebrow, curious, but allows it to happen. And Julia ardently wishes they were alone, the Queen’s eyes burning into hers, and she grabs her magic without a second thought. 

They appear by the first river bend, lush grass and buttercups beneath their feet. 

“Julia,” the Queen says, and she doesn’t know if it’s an invitation or warning.

She leans in, kissing her, and fireworks explode in the air above them. Julia should probably be concerned with her magic making its own decisions, but right now, all that matters is the soft press of lips against hers. The Queen kisses her back, demanding and soft all at once, nails scraping gently, teasingly, against the back of her neck.

The Queen pulls away when Julia’s lungs begin to ache for air, eyes bright. “What do you want Julia?”

“Your name,” she says without hesitation. 

“I cannot let you leave if you know that.” 

“I know,” Julia says, knows well what she is asking and declaring, repeating softer, “your name please.”

The Queen leans in, lips brushing her ear, and whispers a single word.


End file.
